“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.”
And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. The summary of Jesus' Galilean ministry: teaching, proclaiming, healing. All three are expressions of the same kingdom. The synagogues were the centers of Jewish communal life in every town — Jesus enters the institutions of his own people first. The gospel of the kingdom is the good news that the reign of God has arrived in his person. The healing of every disease and every affliction is the sign that the kingdom brings restoration: where the king reigns, the enemy's work is undone. Isaiah 35:5–6 promised that when God came to save, the blind would see, the deaf hear, the lame leap — Jesus' healing ministry is the fulfillment of the kingdom's promised restoration.
Church Fathers on Matthew 4:23
Kings, when about to go to war with their enemies, first gather an army, and so go out to battle; thus the Lord when about to war against the Devil, first collected Apostles, and then began to preach the Gospel.
An example of life for doctors; that they should not be inactive, they are instructed in these words, 'And Jesus went about.'
[ed. note: A passage is here inserted in Nicolai’s edition which is not in the original. It is of no doctrinal importance.] By which too He shewed the Jews that He came not as an enemy of God, or a seducer of souls, but as consenting with his Father.
Read all 24 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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